Once we ignore how cause-and-effect
work and turn the issue into a chicken-and-an-egg question, then, there will be
no reason why this racist screed cannot pass for scholarly analysis.

Indeed, this is the kind of scholarly
works that Donald J. Trump himself would have written had he been, as hard as
it is to imagine it, an academic rather than an “entrepreneur.”

Some of the fucked up lessons
that we can learn from this thoughtful Trumpist piece of scholarly analysis that
is challenging the “conventional Western narrative”…

If Sunni populations escaped
from rebel areas, it’s because extremists have taken over, not because the Assad
regime is dropping barrel bombs on their heads as the United States watches on.

Sunnis are predisposed to
becoming extremists because they are Sunnis. Sunnis are also predisposed to
being traitors, that is, agents for Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. Alawites
are not so predisposed to extremism and treason because they are Alawites. That’s
why the Assad regime relies on them, not because the Assads are sectarian bastards.

Dogmatic differences between
Alawites and Twelver Shia matter, but dogmatic differences between Sunni groups
don’t. Wahhabis, Salafis, Sufis, they are all alike. Sunnis are all alike.

The Assad regime built mosques
and Qur’an memorization schools for the Sunnis, not as part of a strategy to further
divide the Sunni community, no, it did so to placate the Sunnis, because that’s
what the Sunnis wanted, since they are all alike.

It’s not the continuous bombing
of their communities by the Assad regime and the global indifference to their
plight and suffering that ended up fostering extremism among Syria’s Sunni
communities, it’s being Sunni. Their Sunnitude is the problem.

And one can go and on. It’s
bullshittery at its finest.

Yet, the piece is bound to be
endorsed by a variety of well-established voices responsible for the “conventional
Western narrative,” because it’s cool to appear maverick, and even cooler to have
some of your own well-established prejudices legitimated.

Meanwhile, and in another sign of
double standards: U.S.-Backed
Kurds to Assad Forces: ‘Surrender or Die’. In a critical battle,
Washington’s most effective allies in Syria turn their attention away from
fighting ISIS and toward the militias of Bashar al-Assad. It seems the
Kurds have that prerogative, but the Free Syrian Army does not.

Be that as it may, it seems the
time has come for the Kurds, represented by the PYD and YPGs, to assert their
total control over the areas where they make up the majority of the population.
As such, the city of Qamishlo could be next, albeit the battle for control of
that city might prove to be more complicated, due to its greater diversity, and
stronger regime presence. Still, that battle may no longer be avoidable.

The U.S. did not make
the necessary commitment to win in Syria years ago when it had the chance, and
it's now giving just enough support to a losing cause to keep the war grinding
on. The result is more innocent deaths, more refugees and more misery. It is
time for the Obama administration to admit that its policies are doing more
harm than good. The president should seek peace the only way he can, by bowing
out of the anti-Assad fight.

No. No. No. No. Bowing out of
that particular fight, which the U.S. never really embraced, is exactly the
recipe for prolonging the war and misery in Syria. Without punitive strikes
against the Assad regime, it will never be brought to sign peace deal with
rebels. Thanasssi Cambanis does a better job at advising
the next president of the United States.

A more robust
military campaign in Syria should build on both of the missions already
underway: the CIA’s covert sponsorship of armed proxies and the Defense
Department’s overt train-and-equip program for rebels.

U.S. military action
would have specific goals: to weaken Syrian government forces and punish them
in direct response to war crimes, sieges, and other atrocities. The aim of
intervention would be to protect civilians and promote the slim possibility of
a negotiated settlement to the war. It would not go so far as to help the
rebels win — just far enough to maintain the stalemate so that Assad’s regime
understands its only choice is to negotiate with the majority of its citizens
who oppose his dictatorship.

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